SOUTHEASTERN ANIMAL FIBER FAIR is the Sponsor for the 2009 Skein and Garment Competition is World in a Spin.  Share your love of the fiber arts, get recognition for your work,  and receive valuable feedback by entering the SAFF Skein and Garment Competition. Amateur fiber artists only. This competition is intended to give individuals with all levels of experience a chance to enter and exhibit their work. However in the interest of fairness, individuals who would be considered professional practitioners of a particular craft are encouraged to seek other avenues of exhibition such as gallery displays and juried competitions. A professional would be considered someone who meets some or all of the following criteria: advanced degrees, certifications, nationally recognized instructors/authors, and/or significant fraction of income derived from the sales/exhibition of their own work in a particular craft endeavor.  Check this contest out SOUTHEASTERN ANIMAL FIBER FAIR.

Nikola went to the farm to see the animals up close, but she so a group of women making fuzzy hats and poking crazy needles into the fluffy pieces of fiber. She relates that she almost knocked everyone over to get a closer look at the women and what they were making. From that time she was hooked on felting. She was fascinated with all the things you could make with wool fiber hot water and a little soap. Poke it with needles and within minutes you have a wonderful piece of art. Well it was almost enough to make her want to devote her life to exploring felt. She had always been part of the Indie-crafts movement, but into more traditional crafting until she discovered that you could make felt items with a funky urban twist that would knock people socks off. Now Nikola and co-author Brookelynn Morris invite us into their magical world of felting with their new book that will be released in a few days. The name of this book is “Feltique”. They have pictured magnificent projects for us to try in this wonderful book. The illustrations are beautiful as is the entire hard covered book. Each project is laid out for us so we can easily understand and follow the instructions. They also have a vast array of projects using felt in several different ways.  Such as; Wet felting, a process involving heat, moisture, and agitation, requires only a little soap, hot water, and elbow grease. Needle felting, in which you turn wool fiber into needle felt by merely pricking it with a felting needle, is like sculpting with wool. Fulling, the process of knitting or crocheting a garment and then agitating it in hot water and soap, creates a strong, durable wool fabric. There are also some projects using commercial felt that you’ll want to try such is the stunning necklace featured on the cover of their book.  You will be surprised as to what you can actually make with felt. Like gorgeous thirsty coasters or flower trimmed hat. There is a pattern for a pillbox hat in this book that you will definitely want to try, I know I will. They also lay out basic knitting and crocheting techniques for us, so if you are not a knitter or you have never tried crochet it is clearly laid out so you can begin a new journey in crafting.  There are more than 45 unique projects in this book for you to try.  Each one of the 45 projects are quick and doable.  Now everyone, here is our wonderful gifts from Nikola Davidson and Brookelynn Morris co-author of  Feltique.  Brookelynn put together five stunning felting kits to giveaway to my readers. These earrings are featured in their book. So this is not only a book review but a felting kit giveaway and five lucky people will be getting these kits. I want to thank everyone involved from our accomplished authors to the publishers for allowing me the opportunity of presenting this book Feltique and being able to hold this amazing giveaway!  “Feltique” will be released on May 19, 2009 you can pre-order this book from Amazon.com or from, Random House. Heidi works with Random House and is their author’s most passionate promoter. She is the one responsible for sending out this amazing book and making sure we were part of these promotional felting kits. Thank you to all who are involved with Feltique!  To enter this giveaway, tell what intrigues you about this new felting book Feltique in the comment area  and you will be entered in the giveaway.  This giveaway will run from May 11th through May 24th.  I hope you all find this book as interesting as I do and purchase one for yourself or a gift and try some of their amazing projects. Sticky Wicket Crafts is the brain child of Nikola “Wicket” Davidson, at the beginning of her crafting career. They are committed to using recycled, non-toxic materials and worker-friendly products whenever possible. Their mission is to provide original craft kits that are high quality, creative, and fun! Sticky Wicket Crafts is proud to be part of the indie craft revolution in Seattle.  Nikola co-founded and served as Urban Craft Uprising’s first President.  She is now working on a how-to book that features Urban Craft Uprising’s best crafts. Brookelynn Morris co-author of Feltique worked very hard on this book and creating these amazing kits. Her art  has been featured on the cover of craft magazine.  She does amazing felted fruits and several other felting applications.  Craftzine has an informative interview with Brookelynn you will want to read.

 

Win the Aslan Trends 2009 Knitting Challenge and receive a new commission from Artisan Yarns! A stunning new yarn shop, Artisan Yarns is offering extra prizes for the two 1st place winners (one in each category) of the Design Challenge 2009, an exciting contest sponsored by Aslan Trends.   To promote these wonderful yarns by Aslan Trends, Artisan Yarns will automatically give the 1st place winner of each category an extra prize.  Additionally, if you purchased the yarn from Artisan Yarns, you can win a bonus on top of that. Artisan Yarns is dedicated to promoting the creative side in all of us and to being adventurously inspired by original design! . As a bonus prize, if the winner purchased the yarn for the entry from artisan-yarns.com, we will add either ten or five skeins to that prize, depending on the category.So take a trip over to artisan yarns and find out how you can enter this contest. While you’re there look over their vast array of beautiful yarns. Even if you don’t want to enter the contest you may find some extraordinary yarns that you have not seen in other shops.Artisan Yarns is dedicated to those who are passionate about quality yarn and gorgeous colors, beautiful hand-made knitwear, and the fiber arts. Be inspired by the whole process: from sheering the fleece, to creating unique and vibrant hand-dyed colors, to designing innovative patterns, and finally to learning or refining your skills as a hand-knitter or fiber artist. Our vision is all the same– artisans, inspired by the natural world as reflected in the fiber arts. Each person has a different story, but we all aim for and share a similar goal: the search for that perfect color or luxurious texture, which is then transformed into beautiful shapes and patterns.  

The contest is sponsored through Aslan Trends. You can download the application on the Aslan Trends site. They have two categories, one for large projects (afghans, large items) and one for smaller (accessories, baby items), each with separate prizes for 1st, 2nd, 3rd.  The only requirement is that you use Aslan Trends yarn. There are two yarns produced by Aslan Trends that are good for general or felted knits: “del Cerro” (worsted weight) and “del Sur” (super bulky) along with many other yarns. There are also three new weights of gorgeous merino “Kettle Hand-dyes”! Check out all Aslan Trends yarn to see what yarn fits your project requirements. 

 The Artisan Yarns prizes:

• Large item category – 1st place winner will receive $300 as a commission for a new project, which will be featured on Artisan Yarns website.  Bonus prize is 10 free Aslan Trends skeins of your choice.

• Small item category – 1st place winner will receive $175 as a commission for a new project, which will also be featured on the Artisan Yarns website. Bonus prize is 5 free Aslan Trends skeins of your choice.

Artisan Yarns strives to help discover, develop, or just simply enjoy one’s personal process in the fiber arts. Connect with others who are passionate about the fiber arts, whether you produce or spin yarn, dye by hand, design patterns, or knit and crochet; we are all eager to create and share the finished product!